Independence Day
“For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
Deuteronomy 10:17-19
Yesterday, many of us gathered together with friends and family to celebrate the day our nation gained its independence and the birth of our country. The Fourth of July can be a wonderful day full of parades, picnics and all kinds of pageantry.
As we look back to the establishment of our nation, we can also be thankful for all those who have gone before us, including a number of Episcopalians such as our first President, George Washington.
In fact, more Episcopalians signed the Declaration of Independence than those of any other religious denomination. Therefore, we can celebrate that, from the very beginning, Episcopalians helped establish and shape our great nation.
Yet, the appointed lessons for Independence Day don’t spend a lot of time praising God for liberation and freedom. Nor do they lift up the Biblical heroes who bravely fought for God’s people. Instead, they present us with a much bigger picture; they give us God’s vision for the world.
This passage from Deuteronomy tells us God is impartial and takes no bribe. God executes justice for widows and orphans and God deeply loves and cares for strangers. If the lesson stopped there, most of us would simply say, “Praise God and amen.” However, the lesson doesn’t stop there. Instead, it reminds us that those of us who are part of the people of God are called to do these things.
The Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu put it this way, “Extraordinarily, God the omnipotent One turns to us, puny, fragile, vulnerable as we may be, to accomplish God’s purpose for good, for justice, for forgiveness, for healing and wholeness.”[1]
In other words, God’s vision for the world includes honesty in all our interactions. It includes doing the right thing for the weak and powerless in our society. It includes welcoming and caring for the stranger. And as crazy as it sounds, God desires to work through us to meet the needs of others.
Today, may we celebrate our nation’s history and, yet, also remember God’s vision for the entire world; a vision that boldly calls us who follow Jesus to care for the powerless, welcome the stranger, love our enemies and reveal God’s desire to redeem the whole of His creation.
[1] Tutu, Desmond. No Future Without Forgiveness. New York, N.Y: Doubleday, 2000.
